Chemically-Fueled Time-Gated Luminescent Metamorphosis

Recent quest for emulating lifelike smart materials for developing functional outcomes has been spurred by the unparalleled spatiotemporal control of natural systems. However, it is still highly challenging to replicate the progressive time-dependent programmable features of biological systems, such as adaptive broad-spectrum luminescence accompanying functions. Here in, a chemically-fueled transient hydrogel is created based on an aggregation-induced emission-active peptide conjugate (NI-VD). The fuel-driven anhydride formation, NI-VD-An, which results in transient hydrogelation and an evolution in emission from green to blue. The process's autonomous reversibility on successive anhydride hydrolysis over time enables the emission characteristics of the system to be dynamically modulated. Importantly, selective fluorophore trapping inside the chemically-fueled transient hydrogel network can achieve the programmable multicolor emission ranging from blue, green, white, yellow, red, and purple. For the first time, fuel-powered such an ephemeral hydrogel network potentially acts as a time-dependent donor in Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) processes toward the entrapped acceptors as well as a distance modulator of the donor-acceptor pairs, causing dynamic regulation of the emission properties. The exploration advances beyond the fundamental investigation of the transient hydrogel platform producing time-gated multicolor emission to the translation of spatiotemporal pattern development and precisely controlled time-coded information encryption.